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<em>Article originally published October 2007 in <a href=”http://http://gcadvocate.org/index.php?action=view&id=185″>The Advocate</a></em>
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A white-painted bicycle slouches against a lamppost a few steps shy of Crosby St., several feet from the busy traffic on West Houston. Withered flowers stick out of the bike’s spokes. The paint is flaking.
Sometimes known as the <a href=”http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/runninscared/archives/002304.php”>“Tomb of the Unknown Biker”</a> it is the only thing that exists to mark the life and death of twelve cyclists killed in New York City in 2005. “This spot was chosen symbolically as a marker for those people whose names could not be recovered,” said Ryan Knuckle of Brooklyn-based art and activist group <a href=”http://www.visualresistance.org/”>Visual Resistance</a>.“Houston Street is one of the deadliest Streets in south Manhattan.”
Naturally, bicycles are in abundance in ‘bohemian’ downtown Manhattan, but their riders aren’t just wearing hemp shirts and hair scarves — some are dressed in loafers and chinos too. As a microcosm of New York, the cycling community is as diverse as the city itself.Everyday cyclists in New York City take their lives into their own hands simply by making the routine journey to work or across town to visit a friend; too often they never make it to their intended destination. Some days or weeks later a white-painted bicycle, or “ghost bike,” might appear at the roadside where a cyclist was killed by an auto-vehicle.
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Often bearing no formal relation to similar installations elsewhere, it is usual for ghost bikes to be placed at accident spots by anonymous individuals, sometimes under cover of darkness, since the law’s attitude to this activity remains somewhat ambiguous. In this way, these ghost bikes can sometimes seem to have appeared from nowhere.
The ritual marking of a cyclist’s death in this way can be traced to beginnings in Pittsburgh, but is now a collective cult effort that spans the entire globe. “At this point they’ve spread to 25 cities across the world,” explained Knuckle.
Although not always, many of the ghost bikes visible on the streets of New York are likely to be the product of a collaboration between Virtual Resistance and the environmental and bike advocacy group <a href=”http://times-up.org/index.php?page=ghost-bike-memorials”>Time’s Up! </a>“What we’re doing is underlining the places where people lost their lives because others don’t care,” said Bill DiPaulo, founder member of Time’s Up! “We started it, but you can do it yourself.”
Since the project began over two years ago, an estimated 30 ghost bikes have popped up in the five boroughs of New York City; four of these are situated within a mile of each other Houston Street — nicknamed the ‘boulevard of death’ by local cyclists. Three of these bikes commemorate the deaths of Andrew Ross Morgan, who was struck and crushed by a furniture truck; Derek Lane, who fell under the wheels of an oncoming van when his bike slid on metal construction plates; and Brandie Bailey, who was mown down by a truck which continued for another 23 blocks before the driver finally realized he had hit her.
“Houston Street is dangerous for bikes,” said DiPaulo. “A car is 4,000 pounds, bikes are much lighter. Cars can push you off the road and scare you.”
The fourth ghost bike on Houston Street commemorates the many undocumented cyclist deaths in New York City, but also exists as symbol of protest for the under reportage of bike accidents and deaths in media coverage and in official city records. One of two plaques screwed into the post above the bike reads, “For all Those Whose Deaths Never Made the News.”
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A 1999 report by the New York Bicycling Coalition exposed inconsistencies in the way that bicycle and pedestrian accident data was reported, compiled and classified for official records. The report states that while motorists self-assess their injuries — however small — in a Motor Vehicle Accident Report, the equivalent Bicycle Accident Report is only ever used to document serious injuries, such as that causing risk of death or likely to demand urgent hospital treatment.
Since bicycle accident reports do not account for the full range and scope of injury, the erroneous perception that they are a small subset of existing traffic safety problems is further perpetuated.
“Because the bicycles are so tiny most people who kill them believe they should not be on the street,” said Audrey Anderson, whose 14-year-old son Andre was killed riding his bike near his home in Far Rockaway, Queens, in 2005. “The New York Police Department could care less about bike accidents,” she said. “Whenever a cyclist is killed in New York City it is automatically treated as an accident.”
Anderson said that she has not received any retribution for the death of her son and the driver of the vehicle never received a court summons or so much as a ticket.
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“Unless you’re drunk, you’ll probably get away with it,” said DiPaulo on the NYPD’s lenient attitude towards reckless driving in the city. He also said that city officials should be doing more to protect people who endorse cycling and other environmentally friendly lifestyle choices.
“‘Share the Road’ implies motorists and bikes should have equal rights,” he said. “We believe that cyclists should be treated better. The city should have respect for people who are doing their bit to preserve the environment.”
Last year the Department of Transportation announced that it would add 200 miles worth of bike lanes to New York City in the coming years. While this is too little too late for the cyclists who have already lost their lives on the city’s streets, it is a victory for the Traffic and Transportation Committee of Community Board 2, who have been lobbying for bike lanes on Houston Street since 2004.
In a recent development, the Department of Transportation presented an alternative plan to put bike lanes on adjacent Bleeker Street and Prince Street. “After a lot of going back and forth, the community accepted that plan,” said Ian Dutton, who leads the Transportation Committee, adding, “those bike lanes will be installed, first at Bleeker Street in October and Prince Street in November.”